I'm a young American woman in Milan...and you're not. I go to La Scala a lot...and you don't.

Mariinsky Theatre

May 04, 2013

St. Petersburg's midway through the weekend inauguration of its brand new, 700$ million opera
house, funded by the Russian government, christened with a name like a luxury cruise ship
or a Hollywood blockbuster sequel -- 2 Fast 2 Furious, Mariinsky II, Electric
Boogaloo.

In 2011, OC straddled the spongy shores of the Baltic Sea and the broad River
Neva in Paul Smith kitten heels for Gergiev's 19th Stars of
the White Nights Festival during the disorienting, perpetual twilight of the
midnight sun. St. Petersburg, with its vast embankments and canals that rival
the waterways of Venice and Amsterdam (that's what our affable driver told us, anyway) has nurtured classical music's greatest artists and performers -- Balanchine, Rachmaninoff, Chaliapin, Mussorgsky, Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky -- and its original white and turquoise theater
(Mariinsky I?) raised Nureyev, Baryshnikov and Ulanova. And when you tire of Mariinsky II's cruise-ship hall, St. Petersburg's got fifty additional musical
theaters better equipped at handling intimate rep.

At the helm of this weekend's festivities is Mariinsky's artistic
director/general manager of 25 years, Valery Gergiev, on the theatre's timecard since 1998 (as principal conductor) to relive former intendant, our
beloved Yuri Temirkanov. With a spin of his influential rolodex, Gergiev fortified the VIP velvet ropers with bff President Vladimir Putin, Anna Netrebko (looking fine in a dress that screamed Eastern bloc dramz and hair that screamed Sunday spin with dad in the Porsche 911 convertible), Rene Pape
and Plácido Domingo.

Thursday's gala concert officialy opened the theater with ballet, symphony and opera teasers and included
Trebs ambling into Verdi thorns with Vieni, t'affretta.

Moscow-born maestro Gergiev has sweated buckets over the past decade (or two) trying to put St.
Petersburg and the Mariinsky Theatre on the opera map with vastly-expanded repertoire
and an ambitious summer festival to compete with Europe's established destinations --
Salzburg, Bayreuth, Bregenz, Lucerne, Zurich, Aix-en-Provence, etc. Will his Mariinsky II crown jewel complete the trifecta, adding the new, state-of-the-art house to longstanding international rep + an enticing summer festival?

Ummm...why you peepin us for the answer? (DMX voice) Better to close your eyes, point and thank the Magic 8 Ball:

● It is certain ● It is decidedly so ● Without a doubt ● Yes definitely ● You may rely on it ● As I see it yes ● Most likely ● Outlook good ● Yes ● Signs point to yes ● Reply hazy try again ● Ask again later ● Better not tell you now ● Cannot predict now ● Concentrate and ask again ● Don't count on it ● My reply is no ● My sources say no ● Outlook not so good ● Very doubtful

Here, courtesy of Scottish Opera, photo copyright by Natasha Razina, more photos of this Lucia -- Valery Gergiev himself handpicked the Scottish 2007 production of Lucia di Lammermoor directed by John Doyle, sets by Daffyd Burne Jones.

In the kind words of dear Vera, OC's sweetest Russian friend, not all is well for Netrebko in her Lucia comeback after the pregnancy:

People who were there
said that she was not completely all right at the premiere evening, and another
singer got ready to replace her. So she didn’t hit all the notes but
here the audience is not like the one in Milan: they gave her 20 minutes ovation. The tenor was very good – Skorohodov (I heard him in Flegender Hollander in December
and he also was pretty good), baritone Markov whom everyone here seems to love
didn’t impress very much. I'll write more after I heard from more people who
were at the premiere -- I wasn’t -- and am now worried about the night of the 17. If she will not be
all right she may quit.